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Jihad vs. McWorld

Jihad vs. McWorld. Benjamin Barber. Two Opposing Forces. Jihad “ Disintegral tribalism and reactionary fundamentalism” (xii)

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Jihad vs. McWorld

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  1. Jihad vs. McWorld Benjamin Barber

  2. Two Opposing Forces • Jihad • “Disintegral tribalism and reactionary fundamentalism” (xii) • “…people who detest modernity – the secular, scientific, rational, and commercial civilization created by the Enlightenment as it is defined by both its virtue (freedom, democracy, tolerance, and diversity) and its vices (inequality, hegemony, cultural imperialism, and materialism)” (xiv). • Mc World • “Integrative modernization and aggressive economic and cultural globalization” (xii)

  3. The New “Soft-goods” Economy • Hard goods versus Soft goods • Soft technologies • “…rooted in information, entertainment, and lifestyle, and in which products are emerging that blur line between goods and services” (56).

  4. The New “Soft-goods” Economy • Old economy aimed at the body • New economy aimed at the mind and soul • The “new economy, mirroring soft power, depends on soft services aimed at the mind and spirit (or aimed at undoing the mind and spirit)” (60).

  5. The New “Soft-goods” Economy • Selling American products is selling America • “…selling American products means selling America: its popular culture, its putative [alleged] prosperity, its ubiquitous [omnipresent] imagery and software, and thus its very soul” (60).

  6. Selling America • American Culture • “To the world, America offers an incoherent and contradictory but seductive style that is less ‘democratic’ than physical culture…”(61): • Youthful • Rich urban • Hollywood glamorous [alluring] • Socially aware • Politically correct • Mall pervaded

  7. Global Culture Speaks English • American English is the world’s transnational language (84): • Culture and the Arts: • “Music television sings, shouts, and raps in English” (84). • Science and technology • Commerce • Transportation • Banking

  8. Global Culture Speaks English • Politics • “The debate over whether America or Japan has seized global leadership is conducted in English” (84). • “New information Age critics attack the hegemony of CNN and the BBC World Service but they attack it in English” (84). • “Somalian clan leaders and Haitian [official diplomats] curse America, for the benefit of the media, in English” (84).

  9. MTV: Affects on the World • “‘Hugarians, Czechoslovaks and Bulgarians try to imitate everything that is American….> • [T]he state-run financing system of culture doesn’t exist any longer, but neither does any network of foundations and other private funds that can be used, as in the West, to support the arts” (102). • People in Budapest are watching reruns of the Cosby Show (102). • People in Russia are watching a rip off of Wheels of Fortune called Field of Wonders (102).

  10. MTV: Affects on the World • Young watchers of music video prefer the American version even though most countries have it in their indigenous-language. • “Sumner Redstone, the owner of MTV… insists that ‘kids on the streets of Tokyo have more in common with kids on the streets in London than they do with their parents’” (105). • “Anglo-American pop accounts for most of MTV’s music, and where local groups get airtime they generally imitate the Americans” (105).

  11. What are people searching? • Top search results of news story through Google of men and of women

  12. What caused what? • Did the media cause people to pay more attention to the lives of celebrities, or is this our human nature?

  13. Infintalization by the media • The medial understands that marketing to the youth is the key • Selling to children is easier than selling to adults • The new trend is to promote and maintain childish values

  14. The values • Impulse over Deliberation • Feeling over Reason • Play over Work • Pictures over Words • Pleasure over Happiness • Instant Gratification over Long-term Satisfaction • Egoism over Altruism

  15. The values • Egoism over Altruism • Private over Public • Narcissism over Sociability • Entitlement (right) over Obligation (responsibility) • Physical sexuality over Erotic Love • Ignorance over Knowledge

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